Rule of six
by hanzhu
Summary: When two friends set out on their pokemon adventure, they never imagined that they would have to help save all of mankind
1. Chapter 1

The Rule of Six and Docility of Pokemon had existed as long as anyone could remember. At least, as long as most people could remember. The endless bloodshed and violence of the past, along with dangerous secrets, were buried long ago. The world was at peace, its meager inhabitants, blissfully ignorant, living in small, scattered hamlets with populations as low as six souls in a single village.

But there were a few who remembered. They remembered because their fathers remembered, and their grandfathers remembered. Their vigil guarded the world from returning to its natural, savage state. Even though the ancient origin of the pokemon had been lost even to these Four guardians, they knew the true nature of the beasts and what kind of destruction they could cause. They understood how thin the barrier was that suppressed the savagery, and they had vowed to protect it.

Long ago, the beasts wreaked havoc on humanity, slaughtering millions upon millions. The flora and fauna of the land was scorched and devastated. Helpless to fight back, what was left of the population hid in underground places and secret bunkers. The ancestors of the Four were the ones who ended the wars. They enslaved the monsters using forgotten techniques, turning the beasts on their brethren. Eventually the Four liberated several regions, enslaving the monsters and making safe the known world. Humanity emerged into a new world, the once vile beasts of destruction turned harmless.

The Four's technique made two key changes in the monsters. First, the monsters were made susceptible to a special device known as the Pokeball which was able to capture and imprison any beast of any size and remove the threat. The second change occurred when a beast was captured; a directive was implanted into the monster that forced it to obey orders from its captor.

The Four together had captured and enslaved hundreds of types of pokemon, and used them to enforce law and order amongst the tiny residual population. Other individuals certainly realized the potency of pokemon enslavement and began to use them for industrial purposes. Others began collecting the beasts in order to carry out their own agendas. The inevitable occurred, and soon the great pokemon wars broke out, killing a frighteningly large portion of the already tiny human population. The Four used their superior numbers and species of pokemon to end the war, but not before massive damage was done.

To make sure a pokemon war never happened again, the Four created a new law, the Rule of Six, making it illegal to carry more than six pokemon on your person at any given time. The Four also added a new directive to be implanted through the pokeballs; the directive forced a pokemon from causing death to any human or pokemon owned by a human. Eventually the Four was able to capture and implant the directive into every species of pokemon, and the Docility of Pokemon became. The directive was so strong that some of the more fearsome pokemon simply laid down and died, unable to cope with their loss of self. Others underwent massive brain trauma, permanently altering their vocal patterns, sometimes to sound freakishly human. However, the pokeball's method of directive implantation was eventually lost, and later iterations of the device were unable to implant any kind of directive. The devices became weaker with time, also, making it harder to capture stronger pokemon. It was all irrelevant, still, as the directive had already been spread to every known pokemon. The Four retained a secret collection of pokemon not affected by the no-kill directive, only to be used for great emergency. Every generation of the Four feared that it would be their generation that would be forced to unleash this last resort.

Generations passed. As it stood, pokemon collection and battling became popular hobbies for both children and adults, the memory of the once fearsome beasts lost in the sands of time. Nobody remembered the great destruction that almost wiped out humanity, or the pokemon wars that nearly wiped out humankind for a second time. Nobody knows why the Rule of Six existed, and nobody questioned it. No soul realized the true purpose of the Four, and no one knew that there were lands beyond the Four's control, still filled with ruthless, unaltered monsters. The secrets were guarded and hidden well, until one fateful year, when everything would unravel.


	2. Chapter 2

Louis fiddled with the radio equipment while Carl scanned the area. An error message flashed across the screen of the pokegear Carl was holding. It read "Unable to find signal". Either the gear had been damaged, or Louis and Carl were very far off-course. Neither of them had ever seen the error message before.

"It's totally busted" Louis pronounced right before one last exasperated kick at the metal case. Louis' grounded boat lay in ruins on the shore behind both of them. A storm had quickly brewed while they were searching for a remote island with rare pokemon. Carl's Lapras helped them escape with their lives after the boat struck rocks and began to take on water quickly. They were able to find the wreckage later, but as it turned out, none of the equipment survived. At first they assumed they had inadvertently made it to their destination island, but their gear's locator seemed to not recognize their position.

"They should be looking for us by now, anyway," said Louis. The League required anyone that traveled a certain distance from the edge of the region to have a permit. Anyone that ventured out of approved territory would be hunted down and arrested. It was a serious crime. Carl wasn't worried, though. It wasn't their fault.

In the meantime, the two of them set out to explore their surroundings and maybe find a rare pokemon after all. If this was unexplored territory, their chances were good.

"Check out these footprints," exclaimed Carl. The two men knelt down to examine the marks in the dirt. "I don't recognize these at all!"

"Neither do I." Louis peered off in the direction the prints led. He reached for his belt and grabbed a pokeball. After a flash of light, a growlithe sat in front of the men waiting eagerly. "Scruffy! Can you get a scent?" Scruffy smelled the ground for a moment and then darted off in the direction of the footprints. The men followed.

Scruffy halted abruptly and crouched in the underbrush. Carl and Louis crouched along with the growlithe and followed its gaze. A small creature was sitting in a puddle on the forest floor, apparently digging in the mud. Carl whipped out his pokedex and pointed at the creature. "Wooper" appeared on the screen.

"Aww, this isn't rare..." Louis whispered.

"I'm not sure that this is what was making the tracks, though." Carl reached for one of the pokeballs on his belt. "But I would like to catch it anyhow." There was a flash of red light and a butterfree was silently flapping in front of the men and the growlithe. "Butterfree... put it to sleep!"

The butterfree shot out from the underbrush and filled the area around the wooper with a white powder. The wooper almost instantly hit the mud, fast asleep. Carl reached for an empty pokeball when he noticed movement in the brush beside them.

A larger blue creature tackled Scruffy and began spraying water at point-blank range. The quagsire was angry.

"Butterfree, come here! But this guy to sleep!" Butterfree began spreading white powder in the direction of the quagsire, but was soon interrupted when a jet of water railed against its frail wings. Butterfree fell to the ground.

"Scruffy! Scare it away! Roar!" The growlithe let out a loud, angry roar. The quagsire froze but otherwise appeared unaffected. A second, louder sound cracked through the air. Carl and Louis covered their ears. Quagsire dashed towards the brush and disappeared. "Wow Scruffy! That was loud!".

Scruffy looked confused and nervous. He backed up into the brush while peering into the sky. "Scruffy... that wasn't you? What was it?"

"Must be that rare pokemon! Come on!" The two men dashed into the open, attempting to spot anything that could have made the noise. The growlithe and butterfree reluctantly followed. Without warning, a blur shot up out of the trees, cracking branches, and landed on the ground at the other side of a pond. The creature was covered in white fur and stood on four paws. On its back, four more limbs jutted out of a large shoulder blade, each ending in a modified paw with opposable thumbs. It had a large, toothy jaw and apparently lacked any visible eyes.

Carl pointed the pokedex at it. "Unknown Species" Flashed across the screen. "We did it! This is a new pokemon!" The creature let out another roar, this time bringing the two men to their knees. Butterfree was stunned motionless. Scruffy began to pace in circles, obviously agitated as deep suppressed instincts began to stir within.

Louis and Carl unleashed two more of their team. A tauros and a gengar soon stood in front of the men, ready to fight. The men commanded their pokemon to attack.

Tauros charged the strange new pokemon with thundering hooves as Louis ordered a take-down. Meanwhile, gengar flew up into the air and released a dancing purple orb that flew towards the white pokemon, attempting to confuse it.

Moments later, Tauros slammed into the new creature, knocking it to the ground and stunning it. Tauros backed up, snorting. The downed pokemon, using all eight limbs, rose to its feet. Its jaws slowly opened up, revealing rows and rows of razor teeth. It let out an ear-splitting scream, bringing gengar to the ground holding its ears. Tauros staggered back, tripping on its own feet and tails.

Suddenly, the new pokemon became a blur as it sped towards tauros. In an instant, it lifted tauros into the air with a blinding tackle and grabbed it with its four upper limbs. White, furry jaws opened and slammed down on the tauros in a series of vicious attacks. The tauros screamed as blood seeped between its attacker's teeth. There was a moment of silence, then another scream from tauros as one final flurry of jaws ended with tauros in two pieces.

Gengar, still writhing in pain from the scream, was attacked by the blur of white in a similar fashion. The white flurry of limbs slammed gengar into a tree trunk multiple times. Finally the attack halted, gengar clearly unconscious. After another brief pause, the creature opened its mouth wide, and a beam of blue light shot out of its mouth, blasting the pinned gengar at point-blank range. The light stopped, and there was no trace of gengar barring tiny purple rag-like pieces where the creature was pinning gengar with its limbs.

Scruffy, having been pacing and growling, finally lost control and charged the creature, steam and foam spraying from his crazed mouth. The white creature stared at the tiny fire-pup for a few seconds (without eyes) before another flash of blue light shot from its mouth. The growlithe paid no attention as its red skin turned a deep purple and began to flake off. Scruffy pounced in a crazed stupor before being swatted aside by one of the creature's furry limbs. Scruffy landed several meters away, unmoving.

Louis and Carl stumbled backwards, fear stopping their screams. The creature turned its attention on the humans, let out one more roar, and began to charge. The men scrambled into the brush and took off running, fueled by adrenaline. A small squeak was heard as the creature trampled the stunned butterfree in its pursuit. The men reached the shoreline once more, trapped between a crazed, bloodthirsty creature and the endless ocean. Louis grabbed another pokeball from his belt, but fumbled it in his stupor. The ball rolled down a small sandy slope and came to a rest beneath the white creature. The monster made an angry swipe at the ball, cutting the device in half. A red light flashed, sputtered and went dim and a gopher-like shape began to materialize in the sand, but only partially so, as the broken device seemed to have forgotten its arms. The crying bibarel was dispatched quickly by the beast, leaving nothing but a broken semi-body as the creature continued its advancement towards the humans.

Louis began releasing the rest of his team in a desperate attempt to stop the creature. Several of his pokemon were dispatched quickly, others simply ran for cover. Carl, remembering his Lapras, reached for a pokeball. The white creature was a blur as it shot forward towards Louis, jaws gaping, severing Louis' arm cleanly, lapras' pokeball falling useless to the watery sand. Louis screamed and tumbled into the sea water, blood staining the shoreline. The men had no time to react as the creature dismembered their bodies in a flurry of teeth and claws.


	3. Chapter 3

Robert watched the helicopter lift off and fly slowly away. Most of his five man team was already setting up equipment around the landing site. He was part of a small research team from Silph Corp sent to investigate the recent disappearance of two trainers who had been shipwrecked on this island.  
They were not the only ones. A combined task force from several law enforcement agencies had already been on scene, taking pictures, following tracts, and collecting evidence. They also ensured that the area was secure. Robert doubted they would need any protection, but it was nice to know that he and his team were safe.

He just hoped they wouldn't get in his way. It was hard for anyone to leave the grid. Few tried. Tales of untrainable pokemon and dangers beyond anything that could be encountered in the provinces kept most people away.

There was plenty of adventure to be had within the confines of the grid to keep everyone entertained. People had been studying pokemon for over a century and they still were discovering new facts, abilities, and entire species.

Silph Corp was the premiere pokemon research company in the world and even they rarely sent teams off grid. The required hazardous pay was enough to get most off grid projects nicked at the drawing board. That is why he was so excited to be part of this expedition.

Although the reason for the expedition was a little sad. A sudden storm had blown two boaters off course and off the grid. It was evident that the two men had honestly crossed over to off grid with no previous intention of breaking the law.

A man in green fatigues walked up to Robert. He was flanked by two other men who wore military fashion.

"You Robert Fairfield?" He half asked half demanded him.

"Yeah that is me" replied Robert.

"How long will it take your team to be situated? We need to conclude this investigation quickly."

"Not long, but what do you mean conclude this investigation. The two men's whereabouts are still unknown and there is a real chance for some serious study here." Robert said. He did not want this adventure to conclude before it got started.

"I want you to understand my orders are perfectly clear. We are here only to investigate the disappearance of two Louis Bartow and Carl Letterman. We are not here for vacation. We are not here to catch pokemon. And we are not here to to conduct extensive field research. Do I make myself clear?"

Robert nodded, confused at such a fierce response so easy given.

"Good. Now let me know if you need any assistance, and Mr Fairfield, you were wrong about one more thing. We do know exactly where Mr Bartow and Mr Letterman are located. When your team is ready, let me know and I will lead you to the remains personally."

Robert let out an audible gulp.

Robert was lucky. There was a team of paramedics on site that would handle any inspection of the two bodies. He had been instructed to find out what he could about the attacker. His team spread out and and called reports over the com. the remains of nine dead pokemon had been found from a small clearing back out to the beach. Andy had found an unreleased pokeball containing a Lapras lodged in a tree by the beach. Susan was reporting tracks that looked like a large quagsire. Quagsire were not known to be overly aggressive so it was likely unrelated.

The torn foliage lead Robert to believe that they were looking for a large highly aggressive pokemon. It would have had to have been at least twice as tall as a quagsire and would also need to be agile on land.

Robert was looking over some broken tree limbs, when he looked back and noticed that he was all alone. For a second he was afraid, but then his clear head had worn out. The whole area had been bombed with a repel that would keep the strongest wild pokemon clear of the site. There was nothing to fear.  
It was time for him to do a little researching.

He had never been off grid before. He knew it would be dangerous, and slightly illegal, but if anyone asked questions he would claim he had wandered off to look for clues. He knew there were many new types of pokemon off the grid. He hoped to discover one, maybe even catch it! If he did he could study it at leisure and always claim he had gotten it someplace else.

The bush in front of him began to shake. He grinned, this was going to be fun.


	4. Chapter 4

Isaac walked slowly home from school. What a bore! School always seemed to take too long and teach too little. He didn't hate school really. It just seemed pointless. They weren't teaching him anything that he was going to use. He liked learning, but teachers seemed to spend more time trying to control the class instead of actually teaching anything cool.

It must be hard to be a teacher. Student proficiencies varied widely as some students left on pokemon adventures for years before returning to school. Living in a small town like Calbed, not many returned.

He wanted to leave on one soon, but his parents wouldn't let him. They were afraid of him going off by himself and getting hurt. Isaac knew he would be fine, but arguing with his parents was like flirting with a brick, nothing good came from it.

He had a pokemon and battled a bit with it. There were no serious trainer in the small town where he lived, so his natu was still really low level. Anybody who wanted to be a good trainer left as soon as they could.

"Isaac wait up!"

Isaac turned to see who was calling him. Zander was waving and hurrying after him. Zander was one of Isaac's best friends, they had known each other since Isaac's family had moved to Calbed. Zander was one of the better trainers at school, Isaac would battle Zander behind the gym shed during breaks. Zander could be skittish and never wanted to get into trouble, and he always seemed to know when it was coming. His nagging had probably saved him from being suspended for battling on school grounds.

Isaac had convinced his parents to get Zander a cubone for christmas a few years back. The thing was so small and weak when they got it, but Zander had worked with it until it was an even match for his natu battling with the best in school.

"Dude, what's up? Where is the fire?" Isaac asked his friend when he was a pace away.

"You would know. If there was a fire you probably started it!"

"Ha, not like there is anything worth burning for miles." Isaac retorted.

"No man, I got news. My mom just called and Robert sent a package home from work. She said he sent pokemon for me and my brother. You should come and check it out! Do you think your parents will care if you are a bit late home from school?" Isaac blurted out in a rapid stream.

"No way man!" Robert was Zander's older brother. He had done the smart thing and left Calbed as soon as he had graduated. He got a sweet job for Sylph corp. Pretty much everyone wanted to work there. They paid really well and were the best when it came to anything to do with pokemon.

"That is so cool man. I am definitely coming with you. I'll call my parents from your house."

"Alright man! Ok so my mom said there were a couple in the package as well as some other stuff, Maybe I can pay you back for getting my cubone." Zander went on as they turned back in the direction of his house.

"No dude, you don't have to do that." Isaac laughed. Like most kids his age, Isaac wanted to leave on a pokemon adventure, but since his parents wouldn't let him go, he didn't really think he needed any more pokemon. Natu was all he needed for the casual battles he fought at school. It would feel kinda cheap to get a new pokemon for free, when his parents were the ones who bought the cubone anyhow.

"Where has your brother been working?" asked Isaac, wondering what types of pokemon could be waiting for them.

"All over the place really. His division tracks pokemon migrations, so he travels a lot, getting information from a wide range of pokemon."

"Great, he follows spearow as they fly south for the winter." Isaac said pessimistically. Spearow, hoppip and rattata where the only pokemon common in the wild around here. Even pidgy were a rare site.

"No! He followed a flock of charrizard to their breeding grounds last month, and the last I heard, he was estimated garados population in rage lake." Zander said defensively.

"No, I didn't mean it like that Zander. Calm the freak down. I was just trying to not get my hopes up. Nothing exciting ever happens in this town, I just wish it would."

"I know what you mean." Zander replied looking down at his feet for a moment.

Zander wanted to leave too, but his parents also wanted to keep him at home. Isaac felt bad for dampening the mood.

"Don't worry about it bro, I'm sure it will be something cool." Isaac said, trying to cheer Zander up.

"Yeah. At least it will be better than Chris's announcement." Zander laughed.

Isaac chuckled too. Chris had his caterpea evolve into metapod. Which was cool, but what made it uncool was how much he bragged about in school all last week. they had gotten so fed up with it that Isaac and Zander had challenged him to a double battle yesterday after school. Half the school had shown up to watch the fight. It had been awesome. Isaac's natu and Zander's cubone had trounced Chris's metapod and spearow combo.

They made a good team, the two of them. They worked well together in more than just pokemon battles. They were both near the top of their class, so one could sleep while the other would pay attention and then they would help each other though the homework.

They were at Zander's house now.

It was a large white walled house with green trim. The yard was clean kept, for the most part, with flowers around the edges.

They burst through the door with enthusiasm.

"Mom, we're here!" shouted Zander

"Oh I was wondering what was taking you so long. Hello Isaac."

"Hi"

"How was your day at school?"

"Fine, where is the package?"

"Oh it's on your bed. I already took out the things he sent for your sister and I."

"Thanks mom." Zander called as he hurried up the stairs, Isaac only a step behind him.

They threw open the door and ran to the opened cardboard box on the bed. In their rush they knocked it over, spilling the contents over the bedspread.

Spread out before them were two pokeballs, a couple of photographs, a note, and a small stone. Zander picked up the two pokeballs.

"Two of them. Here you pick one." He said extending them both to Issac.

"What do you mean? Your brother sent them to you."

"I know. But I told you, I owe you for cubone. Here take one."

"Well, I wouldn't even know which one to take." Isaac said looking at the two red and white balls.

"I know, that way it's fair, we both don't know what we are getting. That way if one is kinda lame the other will have no one to blame haha." said Zander.

Isaac looked at the pokeballs again. What could be inside? It could just be a ratata or a spearow that Robert had picked up and sent home without a second thought. They could also hold something incredible, like a lapras or arcanine.'

"You sure about this?" Isaac asked.

Zander nodded and pushed the pokeballs a little closer to Isaac.

Isaac closed his eyes and twisted his arm around, hoping to make the choice more random. He reached out and grabbed one of the balls. He pulled it towards his chest. Zander was reading the note that had been left with the other things in the box.

"Robert says these are two basic pokemon that he has never encountered before." Zander said excitedly. "They are pretty low level, but that's ok because we don't have anything high level around here anyhow."

"Let's go outside and see what they are like!" Isaac said. They rushed downstairs and out the backdoor. They parted about two paces from each other and gave one another a nod. Isaac took a deep breath and threw his pokeball at the same time as Zander did. A flash of red and green light filled their eyes, blinding them. when they light cleared two pokemon stood in front of them. The one in front of Isaac was a brownish-red furred pokemon. It stood about a foot and a half tall, with a striped tail like a raccoon raised behind it. Its face also had red markings on its face, also like a raccoon. The one in front of Zander was green and white. It was a small bear on all fours with leafy bamboo growing out of his thick back legs. It had green markings around its eyes and a red headband across its forehead.

"Woah, I've never seen this one before." said Zander.

Isaac hadn't either. That was a problem. They were both smart, and both knew a lot about pokemon. They already knew more about pokemon they had never seen in real life then most of their own trainers did.

"They look really young. I'm guessing yours is grass type and mine, I'm not sure. It could be fire or normal, maybe dark even." Isaac said.

The two pokemon looked at the two of them with equal fascination. The green panda-like one sat down on its haunches while the raccoon cocked its head to the side.

Neither of them had a pokedex, so Isaac had no idea how they could identify them.

"What's your name little guy?" Isaac asked. His new pokemon shifted its head to the other side and let out "Burame" with a purr.

"Burame, cool." Isaac said. It looked young and low level, but that would change after they got a few chances to battle.

"Isaac." It was Zanders mom calling from the back door. "Isaac your mother is on the phone."

"I'll be there in a moment." Isaac replied. "I guess it is back to reality. I think I might need to go Zander. I'll catch you tomorrow at school. We should battle our pokemon then."

"Sounds great man, see ya then." Zander called back as Isaac left.


	5. Chapter 5

Isaac's mother had been worried about him taking so long to get home from school. he should have called. He knew he should have, but he forgot with all the excitement of new pokemon.

He got home as fast as he could, just in time for dinner. His whole family ate together, it was kinda a thing. His mother was upset if anyone was not present without previous notification. He was the youngest of three brothers. His other two brothers had already left to make their way in the world. That is probably why his parents were so adamant about keeping him home

One of his older brothers, Ryan was home for a couple of weeks from the university. He had been talking to his parents about how well his studies were going and how interesting everywhere else in the world was, except here. Normally Isaac would have been listening to all the stories, but today his mind was only on his new pokemon.

"Isaac, weren't you going to tell us what you were up to all afternoon?" asked his mother.

The question startled him.

"What? Oh I was with Zander."

"You see him all day at school, why did you need to see more of him." his mother joked.

"Oh, well it was kinda a big deal. His brother sent home a package, the one who works for Silph, he sent some pokemon home with it for his siblings. Zander said I could keep one." Isaac said.

"Wow that was very kind of him." his mother said.

"Did you?" asked Ryan. "Did you get a new pokemon?"

"Yeah, there were two of them and I chose one at random. I have never seen one like it. Its called Burame, have you heard of one?"

Ryan leaned back in his chair to think for a moment.

"No, I have never heard of one of those. What is it like? Ya know," he said with a grin, "with two pokemon it would seem you are becoming quite the trainer."

Isaac smiled. He knew that last comment was meant more for his parents then for him. He knew that his parents knew too, and would undoubtedly not buy it, but he still appreciated the thought.

"Ryan might be onto something dear." his father said.

Isaac nearly chocked up the peas he had been working on. Did he just really hear his father say that?

"Honey, what do you mean?" asked his mother.

"Well he has been wanting to leave for such a long time, both his brothers left when they were younger. I think it is about time we let this bird fly on his own."

Was this really happening? Could this be his chance to leave on adventure?

"Dear! Do you remember what happened to Travis? A week in the hospital, with no family around. No, I think we should remember why we have rejected this idea so many times before. It is just too dangerous to go alone."

"Dear, you know what happened to Travis could happen to Isaac right here in town. Automobile accidents can happen anywhere, and he turned out just fine. They kept him there mostly out of precaution."

"I still don't want him wandering about the countryside alone." said his mother.

"Well, you know he doesn't have to go alone." interjected Ryan.

Both of his parents turned to face the sudden voice from the sidelines.

"What do you mean, you certainly can't put your studies on hold to go have fun with your brother."

"No mom, I did not mean that. Isaac, didn't you say that there were two pokemon that Robert sent back? So doesn't Zander now have two as well."

"Yeah, he got a new grass type I think."

"See, I bet he is aching to leave too. They can both leave together."

Together? Isaac had never thought about that. He had never heard of a team heading off together, at least not from Calbed.

"Well dear, what do you think?" his father asked his mother.

"Well, alright. If Isaac can get Zander to go with him he can go."

Isaac didn't know what to say. He wanted to leave the table right away to call Zander, but his mother would not let him leave until he had finished his dinner. He would have to wait until tomorrow at school to see if Zander would go with him.

He sent an email out that night to Zander so that he could go over the idea with his parents.

Isaac; natu lvl 7 burme lvl 5  
Zander; cubone lvl 7 panian lvl 5


	6. Chapter 6

The next day at school they excitedly met at break to discuss the prospects of leaving on an adventure. Zander was happy to announce that his mother was thrilled with the idea of him having someone to go with. She felt it was much safer for two to go together. And on top of that, Zander's father had promised to get him a pokedex that night, they would be able to leave as early as next week!

They were meeting behind the gym shed, where sometimes they would fight pokemon with the other kids at school. Today they idly watched a couple of younger kids battle each other. A match between a hoppip and Azul was hardly interesting. The Azul would try to tackle the hoppip, who would be blown away in the wind from the oncoming creature.

Chris was across the battle from them, brooding and glaring at the two of them. Some people just needed to lighten up.

"My dad also said he would get me gear for the road, like camping stuff." Zander was saying. "I should be ready to leave on Monday. Do you think you can be ready by then?"

"Are you kidding? I would be ready tomorrow if I knew we could leave by then." Isaac said with a laugh.

"Oh I forgot to tell you. I called my brother Robert to tell him the good news last night, and he said he would send me an additional program for my pokedex."

"Really, what kind of program?"

"It is something he has been working on, mostly for himself. Its a list of known pokemon migrations and locations. With it, we can track down likely places for good additions to our team. It probably won't help us track down any really rare pokemon, but it will still help a lot."

"No way man! That is totally cool. That help us decide where to go. Have you thought much about that? Which direction to head I mean."

Zander thought for a moment before answering. "I haven't thought much about it, but our pokemon are still pretty low level. If we stay along the Hetarun trail, we should be able to encounter pokemon of equivalent level so we can train our pokemon up a bit."

The Hetarun trail, or route 378, was a twisting path that lead to Hetarun, a small town nestled away in the hills to the east of Calbed. It was a good two days hike, if they hurried. With training Isaac estimated that it would take a good four days. Once they got there, it was only another day and a half hike to Violet city.

Violet city had a gym that specialized in bird pokemon. If they challenged the gym leader and beat him, they would win one of eight badges they would need to challenge the final four and become champions. That was the dream of most pokemon trainers as they headed out into the world. Isaac had always wanted to go out and see the world, become a pokemon master, and have a grand set of adventures.

Being crowned champion was not the overall motivation for leaving. The thought did have some appeal, and following the gym circuit had some major benefits. One being money. Beating a gym leader could pay big, a couple hundred dollars minimum. You also could get some sweet TMs and HMs that could teach your pokemon some really strong moves.

And your pokemon would gain a lot of battle experience.

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea. You think we can take the violet city gym? There are other leagues too you know."

"I never said we had to go fight at violet city." Zander said. Then with a gleam in his eye he continued. "But I know we can take them. All we have to do is train up a bit. You know the money is worth it."

Zander was a good kid, never wanted to hurt anybody. He would put someone in their place if they deserved it, but never out of spite. He did want to be rich someday though, and often mused on ways to do it.

"I think we have a plan." Isaac said.

Zander smiled.

Their celebratory plans were cut short by a shortly yelled "Hey." from across the battle. They both turned to see who was calling.

It was an older girl, about a year or two older than the two of them. She work a dark red stylish coat over some fancy blue jeans. Her hair was long, dark and well kept. She was very attractive. They both stared at her dumbly.

"Hey, I'm talking to you." she said pointing at them. They both pointed at themselves, hoping they were drawing her attentions.

"Both of you, honestly how stupid can you be." Even while insulting them, she still seemed hot.

Isaac regained his speech first. "Hi, um, what do you need." He said, immediately regretting his word choice. Honestly, why did he always sound so dumb.

"I was talking to my cousin last night, and he said you two were the best trainers in town. I'm here on family business and need something to pass the time. Maybe you two could hold my attention for a second." She gave them another slow look over. "Then again maybe not. Hopefully you have more skill then these two morons." she said, throwing her thumb over her shoulder at the two kids who had just finished battling. One of them turned bright red at the insult.

"What can we help you with?" Zander asked, stuttering on the first word.

"Are you really that dense?" she asked. "I want to battle. I will take you both on at the same time, Two vs two, like you fought my cousin yesterday."

"Your cousin?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah, she is my cousin." Piped in Chris.

"Shut up Chris." the girl said evenly with no more thought than one would give to closing the door behind them. Chris looked down in shame.

"I guess we could battle." Isaac said, with little confidence.

"Good, I'm glad to see you at least have a basic level of brain function. Now call out your pokemon, and do try not to be defeated in too quickly."

Attractive or no, she had some pride issues that certainly needed to be dealt with.

"Zander, you ready for this?" he asked his friend.

Zander nodded curtly and pulled out his pokeball. Isaac felt that tingle he always felt before a fight. He pulled out natu's pokeball.

"Natu!"

"Cubone!" they called out as they threw out their pokeballs.

"Amateurs." she muttered under her breath, "Flarion, shelder, go!"

A purple shelled pokemon and a furried fire pokemon burst out of their balls.

"Natu peck!" Isaac commanded. Natu launched himself like a spear with his beak leading the way at shelder, which was the closer of the two pokemon to Isaac. Zander had also sent cubone on the offencive with a command to scratch the flareon.

"Shelder hardern, flareon dodge." the girl commanded. Shelder's shell gleamed in the light as it hardened in time to reflect natu's incoming peck attack. An audible "tink was heard as the attack bounced effectively off of the purple shell. Flareon was less lucky. The fire pokemon skirted to the side to avoid the attack, but cubone kept up with it and landed a bone club with a smooth downward motion of his right paw.

Isaac let his lips drop into a small frown at their ineffective first attack. Maybe it was time to team up.

"Natu, go for the flareon."

The bird pokemon joined Zander's pokemon next to flareon. Flareon was reacting quicly now, dodging most of the incoming attacks and landing a few scratches as well.

"Shelder show them that you are not to be ignored." the girl said. "Ice beam."

A lance of frozen energy shot from the pokemon straight at Natu. Isaac wanted to yell a warning, but the shot hit before the sound left his throat. Natu's inherent weakness became apparent as the single shot took him out of the fight. The small bird lay unconscious on the ground.

"Cubone, watch out." Zander called. "Cubone turned to watch for incoming attacks, but flareon took advantage of the distraction and wound his body up to perform a flame spin.

Cubone was looking bad, half burned and scratched up.

"Finish him with water gun shellder." the girl said cooly.

"Wait, no dodge it cubone!" Zander yelled, but it was too late. The burst of water hit the pokemon squarely in the chest, tossing him back three feet.

Cubone was still for a moment, then shuttered and made motions to get up, pushing itself weakly to its knees.

"Still conscious, I underestimated the rat." the girl said, "Falreon, ember."

"No, you can't!" Zender shouted. "Cubone return!"

Zender pulled out his pokeball and pointed it at cubone. At the same time Flareon spun its fire tail at the prone rock pokemon, unleashing a gust of fire at it. Red light shot out of the pokeball at cubone, but it never reached its target. Fire met flesh as the flareon's ember attack hit home on the barely breathing cubone.

Cubone let out a squeal, a soul tearing squeal that grated through your ears, slammed you in your gut, and crushed your heart.

When the squeal stopped, all sound stopped. No one spoke. All the school kids looked on in terror at the half charred mass that lay motionless on the ground behind the gym shed.

The cubone who had been co-champion of the school yard lay dead.

The pokeball could not recall it. It did not register the dead pokemon anymore. That did not matter to Zender. He held out the ball, pointed at cubone, willing it to move, to react, to do something, anything.

After a moment of utter silence, the girl flipped her hair over her shoulder, and nonchalantly called her pokemon back to her pokeballs.

"I was wrong, you were a waste of my time." she said. She turned smartly and walked past the small stunned crowd off of the school property.

One by one the crowd of local students left.

Zander stood alone.

Claudette; (chris's cousin) shelder lvl 20, flareon lvl 21

Isaac; natu lvl 7 burme lvl 5

Zander; panian lvl 5


	7. Chapter 7

Monday could not come fast enough for Isaac.

He looked forward to it with such anticipation that when it finally came, it felt odd, like a dream, or an experience felt by someone else. He said goodbye to his mother, brother, and father, a process that took much longer that Isaac had previously believed possible.

Zander had met him at the corner of his street. Isaac was surprised to see him there. He had been really shaken by the death of his cubone. He hadn't been returning his calls or talking with anyone.

Isaac had only seen him once since the incident, and that had just been a glance from his front door when his mother had answered it and told him that Zander didn't want to see him.

He had seen the little mound of freshly overturned dirt by the side fence.

The whole thing had to be hard.

"I didn't know if you'd be coming." Isaac said, trying to sound cheerful. He thought he just came off sounding stupid, but how was he supposed to know what to say at a time like this? It was not like they talked about this in any of the training magazines or in any of the pokemon classes he had taken.

"Yeah, well I'm here." Zander said, eyes downcast feet shuffling. "I couldn't miss this, no matter what." Zander turned his face away from Isaac, as if ashamed. "Your parents would not have let you leave without me anyhow. We should go."

Zander was never one to be overly positive, but this depressed mood was almost painful to watch.

"Did you get that program from your brother?" Isaac asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah,' Zander said, slightly more upbeat. "I uploaded it onto my pokedex last night. It works pretty well."

"Well, let's see it then, what pokemon should we be finding today."

Zander gave a weak smile, but it was a smile. "Alright, let's look."

They hiked a couple of miles out of town along the hetarun trail, they had only been able to catch a glimpse of a couple spearow from the distance, but nothing close enough to battle or catch.

"You sure your brother programed that thing right? We should have found something by now." said Isaac.

"Already losing your patience? Calm down, there are pokemon in these woods. We know that, we have seen them before. We should find one soon, tomorrow if we get further along we should get to the twin valley forest. It says there are tons of bug pokemon there."

"Yeah you are right, it's just four hours of walking seems kinda anti-climactic after the sendoff my parents gave me."

"There is more to being a pokemon trainer than battles." Zander said.

Isaac gritted his teeth a bit. Zander could lecture like a sniveling professor if you gave him half a chance sometimes. "I know Zander."

"Well, don't get defensive about it." Zander said. "I was just thinking if you needed a break, we could train for a while."

Isaac let out a sigh, "Yeah that sounds like a good idea. What did you have in mind?"

Zander pointed over to a low tree surrounded by broken rocks. "I was thinking some strength training."

They called out the three pokemon they had between them and Zander got to work attacking lengths of rope to the three of them. He tied burme and his panian to rocks and natu to the branch of a low lying tree. He then ordered the pokemon to pull with all their might. natu and burme looked at him curiously before Isaac repeated the orders to them.

Soon they had them all grunting with effort as they pulled with all their might to move the tree and rocks. Isaac and Zander shouted encouragement to them and helped them form up to get better leverage and traction. With great effort, and a lot of time panian and burme were able to budge their rocks ever so slightly at first, but then they got them rolling. Once they did they tied them to heavier rocks.

Natu never could move the tree, but he wasn't meant to. He got the branch to bend as he strengthened his wings and legs as he lept and flapped against the resistance. When he master one branch they found another slightly thicker one and repeated the process.

It was late afternoon when they stopped to rest. Zander was talking about how they could put a few more miles between them and their home town before dark. Isaac would have been listening but he was paying attention to a particular tree with gnarled tangled roots. He could have sworn that one of them had just moved.

Zander, noticing that Isaac was paying less attention than normal, tried to pique Isaac's interest by mentioning the increased likelihood of wild pokemon further from town.

It did it again, the root had to be moving. No, it could not be the root, it had to be something else. Roots did not move.

He glanced back at Zander and gave him a nod of agreement. Honestly he thought Zander was right, they should get going, but curiosity was getting the better of him.

Without a word he got up and started towards the tree. Zander was giving him an odd look. Isaac called Natu to come over with him.

When they got over to the tree, the root Isaac had intended on inspecting see,ed to have vanished. He was sure that it had been right there, on the left side of the tree, but he could not find it.

He stared at the ground in confusion.

"What is it Isaac?" Zander called from their resting place with the two other pokemon.

"It's nothing, I just thought I saw, no wait!" Isaac called back.

The soft earth where he had been expecting the tree root shifted ever so slightly. Something was digging just under the surface.

Whatever it was, Isaac wanted to see it.

"Natu, get him up out of there." Isaac commanded.

Natu, quick to obey, gave a quick hop over to the plot of earth and scratched at it rapidly with his claws.

A sudden burst of sand kocked natu into the air. The sand continued to flow until a solid cloud of dust filled Isaacs eyes. He coughed a few times, and heard Zander calling out to him. The sudden movement caught him off guard, but it would take more than a sand attack to make him back off.

"Natu peck." Isaac didn't know if natu had a clear shot at anything, but keeping his opponent off balance and watching his own back could lead to openings that Isaac was sure to take advantage of.

Isaac could hear a couple of dull impacts that were natu's pecks missing their intended target and hitting the ground.

"Keep it up natu."

Isaac could hear a hiss rising up from the ground. The sand was settling. Isaac could see his natu hopping around, trying to find his opponent.

With another hiss a four legged bug pokemon lept at natu. It dug its mandibles into natu's side and began to suck.

"Natu shake him off, get up to a high branch where he can't reach you."

His bird pokemon rolled to the side and knocked the bug pokemon off of him onto the ground. He then launched his light body up into the tree branches above him.

The dust had finally cleared, so Isaac could get a good look at his opponent. It was definitely bug type. It had four legs and two green wings extruding from its white body. Isaac recognized this pokemon. He had never personally seen one before, but there was no mistaking the nincada.

The nincada circled and hissed and his escaped opponent. He clamored to the tree trunk and began to climb it to renew his counter attacks.

"Natu, you got a clean shot at him?" Isaac asked his pokemon.

Natu bobbed in the affirmative.

"Then strike!"

Natu jumped off of his high perch and threw himself at the climbing nincada. He landed a solid peck squarely on the nincada's back.

The nincada fell off the tree trunk while hissing in pain, landing on its back on the ground. Natu continued on his downward trajectory after the attack to land smoothly on one of the many tree roots.

The big pokemon righted itself and rushed at natu, front claws raised for attack.

"Natu, you can finish him, attack."

Natu lept forward into the oncoming pokemon and landed another solid peck. The effects of the bird attacks on the bug pokemon were very noticeable. The beat up pokemon was moving slowly now and struggled to keep itself on its feet. He was weak and starting to get confused at natu's persistent attacks that were always changing direction.

Isaac grinned, now was the time to catch it. He had never caught a wild pokemon before, but he had been given a couple empty balls as a going away present from his parents. He was excited to catch the first of many.

He pulled the ball from his pocket and threw a perfect pitch right into the nincada's head. the force knocked the creature's head to the dirt. The ball bounced up above the stunned pokemon and opened. With a flash of light, nincada was sucked into the pokeball as it fell to the ground. The ball warbled as nincada struggled against his new confines.

The struggling grew weaker and slower until it stopped all together.

"You caught it! That is so awesome man." Zander was calling as he approached with burme and panian in tow. "Wow a nincada, I've never seen one before."

"Neither have I, but we will be seeing a lot more of this one." Isaac said with a confident smile.

"Let's see, I scanned it while you were battling and the pokedex is pulling up its information." Zander said, waving the red tablet between them. When he got close enough, they both looked at it.

The nincada was ground and bug type. It listed this one as level eleven in strength. Zander hit the tab that would pull up the program that his brother had sent him. Nincada were common in this area, but they rarely were seen above ground, making them hard to catch. Unless a trainer had a pokemon that could burrow, it was doubtful you would catch one.

Isaac guessed he had been really lucky to catch one in a rare moment that it had spent above ground.

Isaac clutched his newly filled pokemon with pride. One day out and already a new pokemon, and one higher level than anything in Calbed at that!

He was on cloud nine until they made camp for the night a few hours later.

Isaac; natu lvl 9 burme lvl 6 nincada lvl 11

Zander; panian lvl 6


	8. Chapter 8

Zander woke to a rustling in the skies.

The sun was barely peeking over the mountains in the far east. Everything else was still. The pokemon, well fed and healed, were resting peacefully around the remains of the campfire they had lit the night before.

Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. He should get up regardless. He sat up in his sleeping bag and stretched. Stifling a yawn he looked over the four pokemon sleeping around the dead fire. Three belonged to Isaac, the odd fire raccoon burme, natu the small ball shaped bird pokemon, and the newest addition of the bug type nincada.

His own panda like panian was curled up and breathing deeply. It was hard not to think of his lost cubone.

It was a risk that trainers took when fighting their pokemon. The chance of death was always there, but rarely happened. Trainers would usually call off their pokemon when the victor was obvious.

It was really lame, but he envied Isaac. Isaac got pokemon first, and now had more. His natu had been always a little higher level than cubone. Cubone could have beaten natu in a fight, but that was because natu was weak to cubone's rock type.

It was childish and pointless to think like this. Zander shook his head to clear his mind. He had important things to do today. Today was another day to train, to get stronger. And today he was absolutely going to catch another pokemon. He had to.

He heard the faint sound again, the rustle on the wind. He could almost tell what direction it was coming from. Isaac was still asleep, snoring softly.

It was time to do a little exploring on his own.

There it was again! It was much clearer now. He thought about it for a second then let out an audible gasp when his mind recalled the sound.

He woke up Panian and set off with a quick jog.

It was a flock of spearows attacking something. He knew it, and he was going to find out what.

He crashed through the underbrush with his pokemon at his side. They jumped over rocks, dashed around tree trunks, and sucked under low lying branches.

Zander could tell they were getting closer. The squawking filled the air with racket.

It was a sudden moment when the air in front of Zanders face filled with feathers as he burst between two trees to see the birds.

There were three of them, all raising a huge racket as they were prone to.

The unexpected appearance of a human in their midst did not go unnoticed. They screeched and howled and circled up into the air, planning their next move.

Zander took the extra time allotted him to asses the situation. Panian was low level and weak against bird types. He had left his pokedex back at camp like a total moron, so he could not tell how high level the spearow were, but one versus three did not sound like a fair fight. He could not take them all on.

Just as he was pondering his predicament he glanced down for the three circling spearows and noticed a small bundle of movement.

It was scratched up and bloody. Weak form fighting and bloodloss, it crawled along the green forest floor. Zander could still recognize the quill touting nidoran. The larger ears and spines gave it away as a male. It was hard to tell what color it was because it was covered with blood and dirt.

Zander looked from the nidoran, up to the circling birds and back down again at the nidoran. He had studied his brothers program carefully. Nidoran were not common to this area, or anyplace for miles and miles about.

He wanted one, he wanted that one. Something hit him hard inside seeing the bleeding pokemon. He was not going to lose this one.

He reached down and grabbed a stone from the forest floor.

"Be ready panian." he said.

The spearows finally worked up enough courage to deal with the new intruders. Squawking their intent they dove in for the attack.

Scarcely two feet from impact, Zander threw the stone in his hands right at the beak of the leading attacker.

It was a clean hit. The rock knocked the bird right out of the sky. The other two were startled enough by the sudden projectile that they veered off their initial attack.

"Panian, keep him from taking off again, tackle it to the ground."

The green panda like pokemon took off at the grounded spearow.

Zander didn't stop there. He filled the air with stones and pebbles that he found lying about, even the occasional tree branch. He didn't do any real damage to the other two, but he kept them from attacking him or assisting their fallen ally.

Eventually the grounded spearow was able to take off and escape panian's persistent attacks. Instead of renewing its assault, he lead the others in a hasty retreat, crying into the distance.

As soon as they turned tail to run, Zander pulled out a pokeball and sealed the nidoran inside it. The pokemon had become too weak to resist capture, but Zander was still proud of it. He had some poke-meds back at their camp.

He would have this nidoran in fighting shape in no time

Isaac; natu lvl 9 burme lvl 6 nincada lvl 11

Zander; panian lvl 7 nidoran lvl 6


	9. Chapter 9

Isaac would have been upset that Zander had not woken him, but as waking him to go catch pokemon would have involved limiting his sleep he was willing to forgive his slight.

The nidoran Zander had caught was pretty cool, and Isaac like to see his friend smiling again.

It was time to start another day of adventure.

Zander said that they would reach twin valley forest sometime in the late afternoon. According to the pokedex uplink program from Rodger, the twin valley forest was a breeding ground for several bug type pokemon. Specifically it mentioned that this season should have high concentrations of venonats and weedle.

Isaac already had one bug pokmon, nincada. He doubted he would need too many more, but he could always sell any unwanted pokemon he caught. The extra money would be nice because it could help fund their journey. Right now they were doing alright. They had Zander and Isaacs combined savings, plus they had all the parting gifts from both of their parents. THey had camping gear, medicine, food, and supplies to last them a few months, but Isaac wanted this adventure to last longer than a few months.  
They had a pretty uneventful hike that morning, no pokemon encounters, no trainer battles.  
When they stopped for a quick lunch they decided to get their pokemon out and do some training with them. Zander pulled out some rope and began having panian and nidoran play tug-a-war to work on their strength. Isaac separated himself a bit from Zander. He had a few drills of his own that he wanted to try out.  
He first called out his three pokemon and had them run lines for a bit to work on their speed and agility. After they were warmed up he had nincada and burme run a drill that he had thought up while walking that morning. He had both of them start at the base of a tree and then rush up it as fast as they could. When they were up in the tree they had to grab a leaf off the tree and bring it down without tearing it.  
It was a simple enough drill for the two of them. The idea behind it was to strengthen their claws while climbing and to teach them control by slashing off leaves without tearing them. Strengthening their claws would help improve their scratch attacks. With improved control they would be able to direct their attacks more accuracy and efficiency.  
He had another drill set up for natu. Natu was fast and had a decent attack, but Isaac wanted to work on his offensive capabilities. He gathered a small pile of stones and instructed natu to face him.  
"Ok natu," he addressed his pokemon, "I'm going to throw these stones right at you."  
Natu shook his body a bit. It was obvious that he did not like the idea.  
"Don't worry natu, I won't throw them too hard. What I want you to do is, not to dodge them, but knock them out of the sky. Peck them down with your beak, or swat them to the side with your wings."  
Natu still looked dubious and gave a soft moan.  
"Don't give me that natu." Isaac laughed. "Trust me, you can do this."  
Isaac had been playing baseball for his whole life. He was a good pitcher and knew how to hold back when he needed to. He could also hit a target at any speed.  
When he was little he had dreamed of making it big as a baseball star, but fate had other plans. His school had run across some budgeting issues and cut the baseball team. He still played a bit with some neighborhood kids, but there was no chance of real improvement without competition. It had been another reason he had wanted to leave Calbed.

They had a rough start a first. natu seemed more inclined to to jump head first into the small stones then deflect them with his beak or bill, but he got the hang of it. Soon he was knocking Isaacs easy pitched stones to the ground almost as fast as Isaac could throw them.

He gathered his pokemon together to run one more drill.

Burme and nincada had collected a small heap of leaves. He called all three of his pokemon together.

"Alright guys I got one more thing I need you to do. This should be fun for all of us. Natu, I'm going to need you up in the skies. I want you to grab as many of these leaves as you can and lift them up into the sky. When you get a good ten or fifteen feet into the air I want you to drop them, litter them, make sure they spread around a bit. Now this might be fun for you two; nincada, burme. I want you to cut the leaves before they hit the ground, all of them. THis should keep your agility up and teach you to pick your targets. You guys understand what you need to do?"

The three pokemon nodded.

"Good, well, get to it" Isaac said.

His three pokemon happily obliged. Soon they were jumping and flying around, catching leaves and spreading them. Isaac had been right, the pokemon enjoyed playing this game and it was making them work on their reflexes. He might do it again sometime.

Pokemon were strange animals. Like pretty much anything, they got stronger through training and experience. But unlike other wild creatures, they relished in it. They thrived off of competition. They would battle in the wild for other reasons besides food and territory. Scientists theorized that they had a genetic imprint making them desire to be stronger. The imprint seemed to work just fine as wild pokemon could be quite dangerous, and in some areas, extremely high level.

When all the leaves were shredded Isaac looked over to Zander to see that both of his pokemon were about finished with a little wrestling match between his two pokemon.

Satisfied that their pokemon were given a sufficient work out they recalled them and set out on the short walk that would take them into the twin valley forest region.

It took them less than an hour to traverse the hill crest that signified the beginning of the twin valley forest according to the pokedex.

The forest was thick with leafy green trees and bushes which stood in a very stark contrast to the thinly wooded hillsides they had been crossing for most of the day. The thick dark vegetation would be foreboding to some, but they excited Isaac. Zander looked a bit worried, but he always looked like that. It was not as if they would turn back now.

"Right now we should be able to find a lot of wurmple" Began Zander. "They just finished a dustox mating season, and the eggs should have hatched by now."

He scratched his head as a curious thought took hold. "Shame we did not get here a month ago. There would have been a ton of dustox around to catch. But that could have been bad too. The air could have been filled with poisons and spores."

"That sounds like it could have hampered us down." said Isaac. He was glad there would be a lot of unevolved pokemon here, actually. He preferred to catch his pokemon at low level and then train them up. Most of the poketrainer articles he had read confirmed that pokemon raised this way tended to be stronger in the long run.

The path through the forest seemed to disappear with a few feet of entering the thick underbrush.

All around them they could hear the skittering and scattering of things moving through the underbrush. Most of the time they were unsure if the sounds were coming from wild pokemon or from themselves.

Zander was the first to spot a wild pokemon. He yelled out in excitement when he saw the wurmple. Isaac followed him as he trampled through the underbrush.

Their approaching noise startled the small bug pokemon. It turned and crawled away as fast as it could.

Isaac thought they would be able to outrun it if they had been on open ground, but in the thick forest with bushes and trees constantly getting in the way, the small pokemon had a large advantage. Soon they were running blindly through the underbrush with no sight of the pokemon.

They gave up and stopped to catch their breath when they passed through a clearing.

"Way to scare it away." Isaac said.

"Shove it man."

"Calm down it is no big deal, you said there should be a ton of wurmple in this place, right? Well then we shouldn't have a problem finding another."

Zander's face brightened a little.

"There is more than just wurmple here you know. There should be plenty of caterpea and weedle too, even metapod and kakuna. There is also a small stream that runs through here and water pokemon sometimes find their way through here."

Glad to see his friend was not too depressed over losing the pokemon Isaac said, "We had better get to it."

"We won't have to go far, look." Zander said pointing to his finger to their right.

Isaac followed the path laid out by the extended index finger to see a large nest of webbed bug pokemon string. Climbing through the nest were at least four wurmple.

"I'm on it. Nidoran go."

Issac was impressed by Zander's choice of pokemon. Instead of going with his highest level pokemon, panian, he chose nidoran who was immune to poison attacks. This would give him a huge advantage over wurmple who relied heavily on their poison sting attack.

The challenging pokemon did not go unnoticed to the wurmple. three of them lept down to counter attack.

They charged in, heads lowered to attack with poison sting.  
"Nidoran, once they attack counter with tackle. You are not used to handling multiple enemies at once, so be careful. Once you tackle one to the ground, go to the next. Your speed should be higher than them, so make sure you use that to your advantage."  
Nidoran let out a low growl at the incoming attackers, ready for a fight. All three jumped at the same time, all three landed venomous poison sting attacks, and all three were useless against nidoran. Once the initial assault was over, nidoran went on the offencive,, tackling the bug pokemon and keeping them down when they tried to get up.  
Nidoran was faster than any of the wurmple, but not fast enough to avoid all of their attacks. He shrugged off the poison stings without a care, but a couple of them used string shot when his back was turned. Zander had nidoran counter with a leer, lowering both of their defences.  
"Nidoran knock them back down."

The next tackle, albeit a little more sluggish than usual due to nidoran's feet being tangled in string shot, caught one of the leered pokemon off guard. As he smacked into the ground, Zander could hear the smack of a cracking exoskeleton. Time for a pokeball. Zander threw a pokeball from his belt and skillfully landed a direct hit, catching the pokemon.

Zander smiled, but Isaac was a little less sure that victory had been achieved.

While Zander had been concentrated on the three pokemon who had descended to battle with nidoran, he had failed to notice his surroundings. Isaac had been caught up in the battle as well, but when victory looked assured he was looking around to see if there was anything for him to catch.

He was not disappointed for a lack of pokemon.

When he looked up he noticed not one or two wurmple hanging above in the trees, but an ever amassing horde that seemed to number more and more every second.

They did not look pleased.

"Umm Zander?"

"What, oh you can catch on of the wurmple. I do not mind."

"No its not that."

"Oh, you don't have to feel ashamed that I help weaken them."

"No Zander, I really think you should look up."

"Why? What is up... oh" he ended in shock.

The wurmple wasted no more time to extract revenge for their fallen sibling. They leapt from the trees in mass, attacking in a swarm.

Isaac called out all three of his pokemon to face the threat. He was not standing idly by the sidelines calling out orders, but was in the thick of it, fending off the caterpillar like pokemon with sticks and stones, or whatever else he could find to throw at them. Once he even picked up a wurmple by the scruff of its neck and hurled it as hard as he could at an oncoming attacker. When the two collided in the air, they turned their animosity towards each other and landed into a fighting mess on the ground.

Bug blood was seen all around in splashes across the dirt of the clearing.

Nincada, burme and natu were holding their own, for now at least.

Zander was wrestling two wurmple's stingers away from his face. Isaac was going to help him but a sudden cry from natu called his attention away.

Some mean wurmple had landed a wicked poison sting from its twin tail stingers on natu. The bird was poisoned! This needed to end quickly or natu could be seriously hurt.

"Zander, we need to get out of here." Isaac yelled, rushing over to his bird pokemon.

No answer.

"Zander?" Isaac turned.

Nidoran was still taking on more than his fair share of the fight, but Zander was nowhere to be seen.

Where Isaac had last spotted Zander, over by the far edge of the clearing, and all he could see was freshly overturned dirt.

Natu would have to fend for himself for a moment more.

Isaac rushed over to the spot. Lifting up some branches to look beyond the clearing, he noticed that he was standing on the edge of a steed mud filled cliff. Zanders pack hung ominously within Isaac's grasp.

"Zander?!"

Isaac; natu lvl 10 burme lvl 8 nincada lvl 12

Zander; panian lvl 7 nidoran lvl 8 wurmple lvl 5


End file.
